Does tobacco smoking increase the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease subtypes in a large prospective Australian cohort?
Current smoking significantly increases the risk of virtually all cardiovascular disease subtypes, including a newly identified risk for paroxysmal tachycardia, highlighting the critical importance of smoking cessation.
Current smoking increases the risk of virtually all CVD subtypes, at least doubling the risk of many, including AMI, cerebrovascular disease and heart failure. Paroxysmal tachycardia is a newly identified smoking-related risk. Where comparisons are possible, smoking-associated relative risks for fatal and non-fatal outcomes are similar. Quitting reduces the risk substantially. In an established smoking epidemic, with declining and low current smoking prevalence, smoking accounts for a substantial proportion of premature CVD events.
Banks et al. (Wed,) studied this question.